Ecuador To Sell A Third Of Its Amazon Rainforest To Chinese Oil Companies

"Oil and Gas Projects in the Western Amazon"

Ecuador is planning to auction off three million of the country's 8.1 million hectares of pristine Amazonian rainforest to Chinese oil companies, Jonathan Kaiman of The Guardian reports. The report comes as oil pollution forced neighboring Peru to declare an environmental state of emergency in its northern Amazon rainforest. Ecuador owed China more than $7 billion — more than a tenth of its GDP — as of last summer. In 2009 China began loaning Ecuador billions of dollars in exchange for oil shipments. It also helped fund two of the country's biggest hydroelectric infrastructure projects, and China National Petroleum Corp may soon have a 30 percent stake in a $10 billion oil refinery in Ecuador. "My understanding is that this is more of a debt issue – it's because the Ecuadoreans are so dependent on the Chinese to finance their development that they're willing to compromise in other areas such as social and environmental regulations," Adam Zuckerman, environmental and human rights campaigner at California-based NGO Amazon Watch, told the Guardian. The seven indigenous groups who live on the land are not happy, especially because last year a court ruled that governments must obtain "free, prior, and informed consent" from native groups before approving oil activities on their indigenous land. "They have not consulted us, and we're here to tell the big investors that they don't have our permission to exploit our land," Narcisa Mashienta, a leader of Ecuador's Shuar people, said in a report. Dan Collyns of The Guardian reports that "indigenous people living in the Pastaza river basin near Peru's border with Ecuador have complained for decades about ... pollution," which has been caused by high levels of petroleum-related compounds in the area. The Argentinian company Pluspetrol has operated oil fields there since 2001.

by Anonymous

reply 47

04/16/2013

Well, let's see if the Chinese will be concerned about this. My guess is they won't be. No protests over there or any complaints in the media.

by Anonymous

reply 1

04/03/2013

They should've sold it to Amazon.com. They've been getting the naming rights for free all these years after all.

by Anonymous

reply 2

04/03/2013

This makes me sick.

by Anonymous

reply 3

04/03/2013

Where's all those phony "green" celebrities of a few years ago to protest this? No more Ramen for me.

by Anonymous

reply 4

04/03/2013

They are lucky they found a buyer!

The Chinese paid cash and offered a good price.

by Anonymous

reply 5

04/03/2013

The Chinese don't practice war or ideological hegemony in other countries, a good thing. But they also don't do charity. Countries should beware of gifts and aid from China. There's always an underlying motive, always a price to pay.

Basically, they made Ecuador dependent, and then gave them an offer they couldn't refuse.

by Anonymous

reply 6

04/04/2013

Not only will the Chinese get the land but they will also import Chinese labor. Few of the jobs created by this situation will go to Ecuadorans. Don't think that the Chinese labor will be only involved in this project. Others will come to set up restuarants, car dealerships, electronic stores and other businesses. Every local owner in around this project will be under tremendous competition and most will likely go out of business. This is a lose-lose situation for Ecuador. China has used these foreign investments to create job opportunities for their own Chinese population to keep the populace calm and to create economic and social tentacles across the globe.

The Chinese have accumulated a huge financial surplus from exports. But are they conterfeiting US currency?

by Anonymous

reply 7

04/04/2013

R6, this is a form of war. Something like this should be illegal

by Anonymous

reply 8

04/04/2013

Y'all know they ain't that damgum smart for nothin!

by Anonymous

reply 9

04/04/2013

R10 You want people to be ignorant of the aftermath of Chinese involvement. You f off.

by Anonymous

reply 11

04/04/2013

Let the Shark Finning Begin!

Costa Rica just outlawed shark finning because its out of control, the numbers are staggering.

However the boats need a place to dock and transfer their cargo to bigger ships from China. Since they can no longer dock in Costa Rica, Ecuador is just a hop skip from there.

Its still going on, just moved to a different port. Now that they are in debt, what are they gong to say.

by Anonymous

reply 12

04/04/2013

No R11, I just don't think shrill hysteria from the peanut gallery is necessary for a deal signed by a sovereign state of its own accord. It's very patronizing for you to assume that the Ecuadorians are too dumb to make decisions for themselves.

by Anonymous

reply 13

04/04/2013

Not trying to get into the middle of this R11 but Ecuador is not exactly a first world country or super power. So it stands to reason they may not be capable of the right decision.

More importantly, their criteria will be based on their own self survival, not global concerns of environmental destruction.

by Anonymous

reply 14

04/04/2013

It's their land they can do what they want. When Americans cut down their forest, no one complained.

by Anonymous

reply 15

04/04/2013

I think the Native Americans complained R15. But then we killed them.

by Anonymous

reply 16

04/04/2013

What a stupid analogy R15. We barely had real science back then. We didn't even have electricity.

Not to mention most of America dose not consist of a tropical rainforest which creates half the air we breath.

by Anonymous

reply 17

04/04/2013

Spooky. Didn't some poster in another thread claim that South America is going to be the next ruling superpower force?

by Anonymous

reply 18

04/04/2013

AKA South China

by Anonymous

reply 19

04/04/2013

Can the US nuke China soon, please? I take back everything I said.

by Anonymous

reply 20

04/04/2013

Meanwhile, we allow preservation land to be developed because of political ties...

by Anonymous

reply 21

04/04/2013

So what will China ask from the USA for its debt repayment?

(As China is the largest debtor to the USA)

by Anonymous

reply 22

04/05/2013

So much for changing our ways

by Anonymous

reply 23

04/05/2013

the end is nigh

by Anonymous

reply 24

04/05/2013

The USA will default on its Chinese debt...you watch.

by Anonymous

reply 25

04/05/2013

You realize that Ecuador is another socialist economy run by the PAIS Alliance and that the Presidente - Rafael Correa is another Hugo Chavez type?

by Anonymous

reply 26

04/05/2013

Sting and that hideous wife of his should buy some of the property

by Anonymous

reply 27

04/05/2013

Well, it's a lost cheaper than bombing the shit out them. As far as our debt I'm sure the Keystone pipeline and perhaps paid mercenaries for them. It won't be our first born. Maybe a bunch of women for sex slaves.

by Anonymous

reply 28

04/05/2013

Have the Chinese been watching Avatar alot?

by Anonymous

reply 29

04/05/2013

China has bought most of the available land in Mexico--did you know that? Mexico will be their North American headquarters. Many have seen Chinese troops on our border.

China has been in the Amazon for decades. They want South America as well.

There are not enough women for the Chinese men because of their cruel and sexist birth policies. They also have a huge ready-army. Chinese men do not go gay, they want women.

They are looking to find North and South American wives and will do so through an invasion.

by Anonymous

reply 30

04/05/2013

Please,R30, stop with the ridiculous talk, I know a handful of gay Chinese men and I'm not even into sticky rice.

by Anonymous

reply 31

04/05/2013

Canada's Conservative PM just sold Canada to China as well

For starters the deal gives Chinese investors more rights and protections than Canadian entrepreneurs could ever win in China's incredibly corrupt markets.

Moreover the deal "allows Chinese companies to sue Canada outside of Canadian courts. Remarkably, the lawsuits can proceed behind closed doors. This shift to secrecy reverses a longstanding policy of the Canadian government."

Appallingly, the treaty would give Sinopec, one of the big Chinese backers of the Northern Gateway pipeline, the right to sue the government of British Columbia if it blocks the project. Sinopec could also demand that only Chinese labour and materials be used on the pipeline. Moreover the treaty gives Chinese state owned companies "the right to full protection and security from public opposition."

by Anonymous

reply 32

04/05/2013

The deal would give Chinese corporations — and the government that owns them — new powers to influence Canadian policy, not just in terms of investment and industrial development, but also in the realms of environment and health.

by Anonymous

reply 33

04/05/2013

Not smart, or good for the USA. Canadian run-off flows southwards.

by Anonymous

reply 34

04/05/2013

Just 9% of the millions of tonnes of fish caught by China's giant fishing fleet in African and other international waters is officially reported to the UN, say researchers using a new way to estimate the size and value of catches.

Fisheries experts have long considered that the catches reported by China to the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation (UNFAO) are low but the scale of the possible deception shocked the authors.

"The study shows the extent of the looting of Africa, where so many people depend on seafood for basic protein. We need to know how many fish have been taken from the ocean in order to figure out what we can catch in the future," says Daniel Pauly, at the University of British Columbia (UBC). "Countries need to realise the importance of accurately recording and reporting their catches and step up to the plate, or there will be no fish left for our children."

by Anonymous

reply 35

04/05/2013

Wait a minute. Where did China get all this money they have supposedly been lending out to everyone? Something doesn't quite add up here.

by Anonymous

reply 36

04/05/2013

R36, they have the capital, the capital equates $$$

by Anonymous

reply 37

04/05/2013

Didn't the US and other Western nations make China rich by destroying their own industry, R36? Haven't you noticed that just about everything in stores is now made in China?

by Anonymous

reply 38

04/05/2013

Greed killed America.

by Anonymous

reply 39

04/05/2013

Chinese companies don't even care about environment in China. I seriously doubt they will care about someone else's.

by Anonymous

reply 40

04/05/2013

yes, that is why this is scary and depressing

bad for the planet

by Anonymous

reply 41

04/05/2013

Indeed, R40, this spells the end, the true end of everything.

by Anonymous

reply 42

04/05/2013

In what is being billed as the largest "mountain-moving project" in Chinese history, one of China's biggest construction firms will spend £2.2bn to flatten 700 mountains levelling the area Lanzhou, allowing developers to build a new metropolis on the outskirts of the north-western city.

by Anonymous

reply 43

04/05/2013

r10/13, fuck you and your freeper ignorance. Destruction of tropical rain forests -- the lungs of the Earth, if you will -- is an important environmental issue with severe global consequences that affect us all.

We should all be fighting against the exploitation and rape of ecologically important areas regardless of where it's happening or who is doing it.

by Anonymous

reply 44

04/06/2013

amazon bump

by Anonymous

reply 45

04/06/2013

China should have a say in future of Arctic – Iceland president

Chinese and Icelandic leaders signed a free trade agreement in Beijing that will give China a bigger foothold in the emerging region.

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